Monthly Archives: November 2019

Because of the numbers involved and the size of tables, I have decided to create a series of the complete list of all those men with an association to the Shire of Alberton who enlisted. The first of the series – those with surnames A to C – is published below. It features 177 names.

it is important to understand that the list takes in a range of ‘associations’ to the Shire. Obviously, the list takes in those who were born in the Shire, grew up and attended school in the Shire, were living and working in the Shire at the time they enlisted and who, after the War, returned to the Shire. But even within this group there were variations. For example, men who were not born in the Shire but who had been living and working there for several years before they enlisted. Essentially, I have used the designation of L (local) to describe anyone who enlisted from the Shire – accepting that in addition to Yarram they might also have enlisted in Melbourne or some other regional centre – and who was living and working in the Shire at the time they enlisted.

At the same time, I have used the designation Le (left) to describe those who had a previous connection to the Shire – born there, went to school there, grew up there … – but who at the time they enlisted were no longer living in the Shire. Typically, the names of these men appear on the various local, state-school honor rolls. Some of these men had left the Shire years before. At the same time, because, typically, they had attended school in the Shire and because the age of enlistment was so young, there were many cases where the interval of time they had been out of the Shire was relatively short – short enough for people to still see them as ‘local’. As has been pointed out before, many of these (Left) names appear on either or both the Shire of Alberton Roll of Honor and the Alberton Shire Soldiers’ Memorial. One factor that came into play was the question of whether or not there were still family members residing in the Shire.

I have also identified as a separate category those who had come to Australia as immigrants (Imm) . Typically these were young – late teens or early twenties – and they were working as farm workers in the local district. Some had been in the Shire for a few years – in such cases I have also designated them as L (Local) – while others had only very recently arrived. They were mainly from the United Kingdom – most commonly England – although there were several from Ireland.

The last group I have identified covers itinerant workers (IW). This category describes the small number of men where the only piece of evidence to tie them to the Shire was the railway warrant issued by the Shire Secretary for travel to Melbourne to complete the enlistment process. They were obviously residing – and presumably working or looking for work – in the local area at the time they enlisted but, apart from the warrant itself, there is no other record to indicate how long they had been there.

The table covers all those for whom there is a record of war service. If the service was in the army of another (Allied) nation I have indicated this on the table. In this particular table, George Abraham Bland served with New Zealand. There is one woman in the list below: Alice Cocking who served as a nurse in both Egypt and Salonika.

The family data on the table comes from The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria (BDM). Where the person was born interstate or overseas or where they were born in Victoria but there is no entry for them, the equivalent data, to the extent that it is available, comes from the enlistment and service records. In these cases the data appears in italics.

Entries highlighted in red represent individuals who have not appeared on previous lists.

As always, if there are issues with any of the names or details I would appreciate hearing from you: